This work is an investigation of the mental terms evoked by preschool children from 5 and 6 years old during the reading of an illustrated children book. (Truks - Publisher Ática). The individual stories of the children, selected according to their age, had been recorded, transcribed and analyzed. It was possible to identify words and expressions related to mental states through four categories: cognitive and emotional terms, wishes/intention and perceptions. The results indicated that the children of both ages used terms concerning to mental states in the reading of narrative with image. The most evoked terms were the wishes/intention and perceptions, followed emotional, cognitive. There were significant difference between the total numbers of terms evoked by those of 6 years (264) and those of 5 years old (183). The predominance of perceptive terms indicates that the children focused on their narratives terms that denote more physical behaviours and actions of the characters than subjective states.
Philosophy of mind; Early chilhood education; Infantile literature
